What We Are Looking For is What is Looking
Marian Gallery, Mount Mary University, January-February, 2015

For his solo exhibition at the Marian Gallery, Michael Velliquette will create a site-specific, collaged-based mural that will cover the entire surface of the gallery’s 1800 square feet of wall space. In preparation for the exhibition, Velliquette painted and drew unique surface treatments on over 100 large rolls of drawing paper. Over the course of the installation the paper rolls will be cut, layered, and pinned to the walls in vibrant, abstract arrangements. The exhibition is inspired in part by an illuminated stained glass representing St. Francis of Assisi that is on permanent view in the Marian Gallery. The exhibition’s title, “What We Are Looking For is What is Looking” refers to a quote commonly misattributed to the saint, and which speaks to underlying themes in Velliquette’s work surrounding the nature of perception and consciousness. Color also plays a powerful role in Velliquette’s work and acts to convey a sense of optical fullness, or visual abundance in the eyes of viewer.